Hygiene Promotion

Handwasing can save lives. Effective sanitation programs should include efforts to promote hygiene.
Unwashed hands can transmit the bacteria, viruses and parasites found in human faeces directly to foods and mouths. This causes preventable illnesses, such as diarrhoea or intestinal worms. About 1.8 million people die each year from diarrhoea and over 90 per cent of them are children under five. Simply washing hands with soap and water can be a major factor in saving lives and improving health and nutrition.
However social stigma prevents people from speaking openly about hygiene and the lives of millions of people are affected as a result. The International Year of Sanitation aims to address these challenges by raising awareness of the benefits of good hygiene and by helping to break the taboos about speaking out for changes in behaviour.

Participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation: A new approach to working with communities Promotes hygiene behaviours, sanitation improvements and community management using participatory techniques. WHO 1996. Link>>

Life Skills-Based Hygiene Education, A guidance document on life skills-based hygiene education in school
sanitation and hygiene education programmes. IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. Unicef, 2004. [pdf - 737 kb]

Can Hygiene be Cool and Fun? Insights from School Children in Senegal
This study examines children's interactions with sanitation to better understand how interventions in school sanitation can become more effective. WSP, 2007. Link>>

The Handwashing Handbook, The handbook outlines an approach to laying the foundation for a national program, consumer research, and program implementation. Also avaialble in French and Spanish). Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing/World Bank. Link>>